An Empty Void
by OlafIsoherranen
Summary: The Thurokiirs uphold and protect the honor and spirit of their House, forming the pillar of support that keeps their Houses on the right path, but who makes sure that pillar is strong and steady?  The adventures of the Heraani Thurokiir.


For those of you unfamiliar with Escape Velocity, go here: http:/ / evn. wikia. com /wiki/

For more generalized info that's helpful primarily with this chapter, go here: http:/ / evn. wikia. com /wiki/Auroran_Empire

Brief Overview:

This story will somewhat follow the adventures of my pilot through the latter part of the Auroran storyline of Escape Velocity, it picks up during the Vell-os rescue mission of that particular storyline. I'll probably be adding in things that aren't EV canon, so don't be surprised when that happens. I'll also most likely have the story take a different route than the official one, which in my opinion will make for better reading anyways since you won't be exactly sure what's going to happen. Or so I hope, I'll let you all be the judge of that. If you're confused about something that isn't in the wiki(or that you can't find in the wiki), send me a mail and I'll be happy to answer any questions. Remember - I love getting reviews of any kind, no matter if it's praise or criticism(of the constructive variety, please). If it goes over well enough I may do a prequel.

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Ku'Nash swore as his head nearly collided with a slightly collapsed ceiling bulkhead as he headed for the bridge of the ship. He yelled at a nearby engineering acolyte to either have it fixed by the time he came back or lose an extremity of his choosing. Ku'Nash was not a very happy man at the moment, in fact, Ku'Nash was rarely a happy man these days. A warrior by birth and an engineer by choice, his many engineering innovations and his extensive former career as a decorated warrior made him the pride of House Heraan as well as the natural choice for Chief Engineer on the Thurokiir's new Thunderforge-class flagship.

Which normally would have been a great position for Ku'Nash, who enjoyed having spare time tinkering with his various side projects and inventing new and exciting ways to kill the enemies of House Heraan. Unfortunately, Heraan's new Thurokiir seemed to engage in space combat about as much as every other family's Mundokiir put together. As it stood, his abilities were being stretched to the limit simply keeping the ship held together in one piece. A problem that will occur often when your captain's idea of a good time is taking on several Federation Carriers and their Heavy Destroyer escorts at the same time with no escort of his or her own.

This was even more amazing when you considered the fact that the Thunderforge-class vessel(the first of its kind) had no equal throughout known space. There were rumors of a gigantic Polaris vessel the size of three Aurora Carriers put together that could tear through entire fleets without taking so much as a scratch, but experienced engineers like Ku'Nash knew such tales were merely the alcohol induced ramblings of space faring captains combined with the seemingly magical attributes displayed by Polaris vessels like the Scarab(which could take on fleets of Auroran and Federation vessels by itself already).

Speaking of captains... Ku'Nash was dreading the discussion he was about to have with his. Especially since the bad news he was about to impart was entirely the fault of an incompetent tech from **his** department. She would _**not**_ be pleased, and being on the receiving end of her anger wasn't something any of the crew wanted happening to them. Especially since receiving the Thurokiir's anger would likely end fatally for everyone outside of perhaps two or three people in the entire Auroran Empire, due to her considerable martial skills. But she was his Thurokiir, and Ku'Nash would slit his own throat before he even considered the idea of lying to her.

As Ku'Nash made his way to the bridge, he couldn't help but marvel at the newest innovations contained in the ship that he had helped create, a fact that he never failed to mention whenever House Heraan's irritating bureaucrats questioned matters of funding regarding his various side projects. Ku'Nash often thought that the Family would be better off if they would simply fling every last bureaucrat into a star, but then such annoyances were a part of the all or nothing package of the cultural and technological progress House Heraan was making. No bureaucrats, no engineers, and Ku'Nash would be out of a job. It'd be back to a dull life of hacking off the limbs of Moashi dogs the old fashioned warrior's way.

Not that such a life was a bad choice as far as careers go, and it certainly had its moments, but after finally managing to not only replicate a slightly lesser version of Federation shielding and then getting it to work on Heraani vessels... hand to hand combat just didn't appeal to Ku'Nash like it used to. After that particular monumental triumph he hadn't ever expected that he'd been able to top himself, and then he'd gone and solved the Auroran's problem of maintaining artificial gravity in high speed combat situations. It wasn't a fact known to very many people but Aurorans had actually figured out how to artificially generate gravity a very, very long time ago. They simply couldn't get it to work in fast moving spacecraft.

Naturally such huge breakthroughs had immediately spread throughout Auroran space both due to the crude spy networks maintained by all the Houses, and a joint effort by the Dechtakar warriors and the First Family to label such achievements as "breakthroughs that would bring great honor and prosperity to all Auroran people." While the First Family could yell until they got hoarse and died as far as the Heraani House leaders were considered, denying the Dechtakar was unthinkable. Ku'Nash had seethed for months, raging about how "uncouth barbarians" had stolen **his** hard work and how the Moashi vermin must have somehow manipulated the Dechtakar into performing their dirty work for them. Now, however, he considered those two accomplishments to be mere footnotes compared to the glory that was the Thunderforge-class vessel.

Ku'Nash shook his head as he realized that he was standing in the middle of a hallway staring at a bulkhead. He started heading for the bridge again at an increased pace, he didn't want to keep his Captain(for she was both his Thurokiir and his Captain) waiting any longer than he had to. She was a rather mysterious figure to most Aurorans, this new Thurokiir of theirs. The rate of her ascent through the warrior ranks had been unheard of, she had gone from completely unknown to Thurokiir in slightly under a year. Already her deeds were becoming the stuff of legends, and songs of them were sung in bars throughout all of Auroran space. Though whether they were epic tales of heroism and bravery or ones that painted the Captain as a treacherous and cowardly cur with no honor depended on which House's space they were being sung in. As far as the Captain herself was concerned, any noteworthy kills got tattooed onto her body and that was the end of it. She had no patience for bards or minstrels. As far as her own self-image went, however... The Captain liked to consider herself a pilot and martial artist without peer, immensely attractive, cultured, diplomatic, well mannered, patient but most importantly of all - modest.

"Well," Ku'Nash mused to himself with a grin as he reached the ship's bridge, "at least the first two are accurate."


End file.
